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Friday, January 30, 2015

It's a cold morning a few days before Christmas 1961 in Durango Colorado. With the snow from a few days before filling the narrow-gauge yard beside the Depot, a crew readies K-36 Mikado 488 and heads south into the low winter solstice sun. Photographer John West fills in the details.

A caboose hop leaves Durango headed for Farmington. It will pick up its train at Carbon Junction, where the cars were set out the prior evening by a train from Chama. The caboose, two loaded boxcars, two flats of farm tractors, and a MofW tank car are the only cars from a 50 car train that made it all the way into Durango, the balance were Aztec and Farmington cars that were set out at Carbon Junction. The MofW tank car had been used to fill cisterns at Ignacio and Lumberton on its eastbound trip to Chama two days before.

In just eight short years, all the locations from Chama to Durango listed above will see their last train as Rio Grande abandons the narrow gauge except the short but incredibly scenic--and lucrative--Silverton Branch. Antonito to Chama will be resurrected after a full year of abandonment by the states of Colorado and New Mexico and 488 now resides in Chama.

Tuesday, January 27, 2015

Drew Jacksich makes his debut here with Photo of the Day. Mr. Jacksich gets around if a quick tour of his flickr site is any indication. His photos appear in Wikipedia articles, and with good reason, because not only do they have some historic significance, but the bulk of them have some real beauty.

Such is the case with his photograph of the Rio Grande Zephyr at Castle Gate, Utah in June 1975, just 40 years ago this year. The last remnant of the Silver Lady and the last privately controlled inter-city passenger train was 4 years into her proud, tri-weekly service following the demise of the popular California Zephyr, begun in 1949 by the Burlington, Rio Grande and Western Pacific railroads as a Chicago to San Francisco train timed to view Colorado's Rocky Mountains in the daylight.◊

Friday, January 16, 2015

Note: This post is entirely personal. If you are interested in seeing life on the other side of this screen and site, read on.

Photo: Parker_2

And, we're back. I took some 6 weeks off of writing here on Colorado Railroads mostly because of the intensity of this past year. Losing a loved one is always hard, and as my close friends know, losing my mother-in-law is particularly difficult considering she birthed and raised the woman who is my most treasured gift and my crowning glory. Only a few short years ago, I lost the last of my grandparents and now, for my children to lose one of theirs, it has been very hard to grieve this loss.

I don't usually crack the pages of this site apart to let folks in. I'm very private and I don't volunteer information to just anyone. Nonetheless, I am forced to admit that these last few months have been hard, even without considering the grief.

Photo: SDRandCo

My condition is very difficult to predict. One of the few telltale signs that I've been able to understand as an indicator of my future condition is the weather. Because my condition is in part arthritis-related, any weather system that approaches my location will have an adverse affect on my condition. Likewise, eating certain foods seems to produce an adverse response in my body. This response aggravates the symptoms of my condition. For example, a rare departure from my diet would be to eat pizza, which I did on Sunday. Eating three pieces of the standard, hand-tossed, two topping pizza has produced widespread pain, inflammation, and fatigue. Not my favorite aperitif!

What are the holidays known for? We sing, in part, about the weather, and we talk about the food. Can you imagine what a minefield Christmas it is to me and my family? Therefore, it shouldn't come as any surprise why I might take off the month of December. I hope you can forgive me my absence, and let's do everything we can to have a great 2015!◊

Welcome!

Welcome to Colorado Railroads, a site for the fans of past and present railroads serving the Centennial State in the USA. Its editor is a Colorado native, whose fascination with trains started at age 5 in Durango with the smell of creosote, sweat, steam, and coal smoke, the sight of a headlight and smokestack down the tracks, and the sound of an engine whistle echoing off canyon walls. The question isn't "What's so fascinating about Colorado's railroads?" It's "How could anyone not be captivated by such a beautiful and rich experience?" more